Last year, when I participated in a Transparency International delegation in Washington DC and New York, a number of formal meetings and informal chats were circulating around the idea that Viktor Orban's 'illiberalism' – well, to put it more correctly: hybrid regime or autocracy – could be built in the US. Seeing Donald Trump's... More detail

Will post-Brexit Britain be a beacon or buccaneer on financial crime?

Today marks the third anniversary of the 2016 Anti-Corruption Summit, at which the UK committed to a number of ambitious new initiatives to fight corruption both in this country and around the world. Although many of the UK’s commitments have been implemented, some key pledges are now long overdue. These notably include a commitment... More detail

Business and the UK's Anti-Corruption Strategy - bear-traps and opportunities

Robert Barrington. Executive Director of Transparency International UK, reflects on the opportunities and challenges for the UK Government in engaging the business community over the national Anti-Corruption Strategy.
As part of its widely-acclaimed national Anti-Corruption Strategy, the UK Government aims to engage the business community. There is good reason to do so. Businesses can be... More detail

Reflections on a decade in the fight against corruption and the coming challenges

After eleven years at Transparency International UK, Robert Barrington will be moving on from his post as Executive Director to take up a role as Professor of Anti-Corruption Practice in September. Here he reflects on some of the successes he has seen over the past decade, and future challenges for the anti-corruption movement.
When I... More detail

Here’s why we need Suspicious Minds in order to go on together

The following is a guest post from Adam Williamson - Head of Professional Standards at AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians)
Money laundering is big business. The National Crime Agency estimates that money laundering helps enable serious and organised crime that costs the UK an estimated £37 billion each year. This rises to hundreds of billions... More detail

Last night, 13 of the more cultured members of Transparency International UK staff (including me, naturally) went on a little excursion to see Richard Bean’s new play at the National Theatre, Great Britain. Fancy. But it wasn’t exactly non-work related – the production is a “grotesque satire” of the phone hacking scandal which exposed the illegal interception of phones by newspapers within the past decade.

Our thoughts are with the Al Jazeera journalists convicted in Egypt yesterday. The media plays an essential role in the global fight against corruption and acts as a public watchdog on abuses of power. But for many journalists around the world, being threatened, intimidated or imprisoned for doing their job is the norm.

News has broken that Rebekah Brooks has been cleared of all charges in the phone-hacking trial, and Andy Coulson was found guilty of conspiring to hack phones. This is an outcome of one of the most significant corruption scandals in recent years – but what next?

Press freedom is fundamental to the fight against corruption in many countries. However, our 2011 report on Corruption in the UK highlighted concerns over concentration of media ownership and corruption in politics and the police. Read our thoughts on what the new system should look like.

Revelations emerging from the Leveson Inquiry this week have suggested that some UK politicians fail to see the risks of close relationships with the media, and are not able to maintain the safeguards that are essential to ensuring integrity.

As the phone hacking scandal escalates, more and more evidence is emerging highlighting undercurrents of corruption that are embedded in our media, police, and political institutions. The relationship between media ownership and the UK political establishment has come under particular scrutiny over the past few days.

This afternoon the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, has confirmed that documents supplied to the police contain evidence that journalists working for the News of the World made ‘inappropriate payments’ to police officers in exchange for information.